Keller @ Large: Another Online Celebrity Death Hoax

BOSTON (CBS) — Let’s start with some good news – Britney Spears is just fine.

The 35-year-old former Mouseketeer yesterday became the latest target of the vandals who’ve turned the internet into the world’s largest open sewer. Someone apparently hacked into the Sony Music Twitter feed and posted a report that Britney had been killed in an “accident.”

Real news outlets called Britney’s manager who immediately spiked the rumor, but others, like the British sewer-trolling website Mirror Online ran with the story. There are indications this may be the work of a group I won’t publicize by naming that specializes in hacking celebrity accounts even as they offer their “security” expertise for sale.

You know, the way the local mob likes to drop in on a store owner and tell him how terrible it would be if something awful happened to his nice little business.

Repeat after me: I resolve to never again believe anything I read on the internet unless it is from a news organization I absolutely trust.

And no, that doesn’t include your old college roommate’s rantings on Facebook.

I would also urge a new year’s resolution to turn off your smart phone for at least half of your waking hours as a way to free yourself from the tyranny of the sewer, but let’s face it, that’s unrealistic.

So let’s leave it at this: you care about knowledge and facts. That’s why you’re listening to WBZ in the first place.

And you recognize that whether it’s some creep lying about someone’s death or something far worse, the internet will remain a source of manipulation, lies and vicious garbage.

Or, as Britney might put it: “Oops, they did it again.”

Listen to Jon’s commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.